The Judgemaster
http://static1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20061025014347/finalfantasy/images/6/60/Ffta-cid.jpg
"We are the judges, and I, the Great Judgemaster. They call me a pillar, and I wield absolute power. That power must not be abused." -Judgemaster Cid Randell

Becoming a Judgemaster
Judgemasters are lawful fighters who decide to undertake the rigorous training to becoming a judge of the land itself through battle. Separate from the judges of the courts, Judgemasters carry out the law in a physical (and usually violent) method. They become renowned throughout the land, and must be capable of social skills.

Entry Requirements:
Skills:Knowledge (Nobility) 5 ranks, Diplomacy 8 ranks, Intimidate 5 ranks
BAB: +3
Languages: Must speak 3 languages in addition to Common
Alignment: Lawful
Special: A Judgemaster must finish all five levels of Judgemaster or else are considered an Ex-Judgemaster and lose all class features.

Judgemaster’s Weapon: Judgemasters are notorious across the land for their large, overbearing weapons that they carry to enforce the law. A Judgemaster may choose Exotic Weapon Proficiency as a bonus feat, and select either the Knight Sword or the Greathammer as their weapon. Both weapons are masterwork and are granted to the Judgemaster upon entering the prestige class for a cost of 1,000 gp. They are considered lawful weapons.

Judge Points: A Judgemaster gains statistics for those they bring to justice. If a Judgemaster can justify their kill for their alignment (more difficult for LG than LE) they gain a Judgment Point upon delivering the final blow. They only gain a Judgment Point if they deliver the final blow, and do not gain the Judgment Point if they do not declare the righteousness of their killing. This can come in any form of speech delivered to the opponent before they are killed, but it must justify the kill (as satisfactory to the DM) in order to gain the Judgment Point. This can only be used on intelligent creatures (Intelligence score of 5+), but the creature does not have to understand their judgment for the Judgemaster to get the Judgment Points. Judgment Points carry over out of combat, and stack up to a maximum of 20. Judgment Points can also be gained through successful critical strikes and diplomatic surrender through the use of a Diplomacy or Intimidate check.

Each point grants a +1 insight bonus to Gather Information, Knowledge, Listen, Search, Sense Motive, and Spot when investigating someone the Judgemaster believes to be a criminal.

Meat Shield (1JP): When an enemy makes a ranged attack against you, as an immediate action you may make a grapple check against 1 enemy within 10' of you. If you succeed, you enter that enemy's square and the attack is resolved against that enemy's AC, and they take damage if successful. After the attack is resolved, you may move into any square adjacent to that enemy.
Smite Chaos (1JP): Add your Charisma modifier to your next attack roll. You also deal +2 damage for each Judgemaster level. If you use this on an opponent that is not Chaotic, it has no effect but the Judgment Point is still spent.
Denounce (2JP): You may replace your attack roll with an intimidation check. For every 5 points the roll exceeds the enemy's AC, you deal an additional 5 damage.
Appeasement (2JP): As a Swift action, you heal yourself for 2d10/Judgemaster level and gain the same amount in temporary hit points.
Wrathful Strike (4JP): Your next attack causes your opponent to lose focus. They take a penalty to saves, attack rolls and damage equal to your Judgemaster level.
Incite (4JP): As an Immediate Action, you may grant one ally with up to twice your Judgemaster levels as an untyped bonus to attack, damage, or skill check rolls.
Condemnation (6JP): As a Move Action, choose one opponent within 100' and move to any square adjacent to that opponent. For every 10' you travel over your normal move speed, you gain a +2 bonus to attack and damage rolls against that enemy.
Parley (6JP): As a Standard Action, choose one enemy within 100' and make a Diplomacy check against that enemy's AC. If you succeed, that enemy cannot take actions on their next turn.
Righteous Indignation (8JP): As an Immediate Action, take any damage you would take from an attack, double it, and make one attack at highest BAB against an enemy in range.
Justified Pursuit (8JP): As a free action, you may move the same distance as one enemy who leaves your threatened range. You may choose to use this ability after you resolve your attack of opportunity.
Judge, Jury, Executioner (10JP): You may make two Full-Round Attacks against one enemy. Each attack that crits grants you an additional attack. Following your attack, you are fatigued for 1d4 turns.

You may only spend Judgment Points once per round.

Authority: Judgemasters gain a +4 competency bonus to Bluff, Intimidate, and Diplomacy when they speak to civilians or citizens. This increases to +8 when speaking to military units.

Mercy: Judgemasters may choose at any time to deal non-lethal damage with their weapon at no penalty. If their attack would reduce the opponent to 0 hit points or fewer, the Judgemaster may take a free 5’ step.

Disarmer: Judgemasters are experts at disarming criminals. They may choose either the Improved Disarm or the Improved Sunder feat as a bonus feat. The bonus granted increases to +6. In addition, the Judgemaster can control their might when making these attempts. A Judgemaster who successfully disarms or sunders an unarmed opponent may sever (Knight Sword) or crush (Greathammer) that opponen'ts natural weapons, provided they are extremities (hands, claws, spikes, tails, etc.). A Judgemaster who sunders a weapon does not destroy it, they simply break it. It may be repaired with a DC20 (Craft for weapons; Spellcraft for wands, staves, and rods; Heal for natural weapons) check. This check may be made in combat as a Swift Action. It is unusable as a weapon until it is repaired.

Justice: Judgemasters gain a +5 bonus to attack and damage rolls against Chaotic opponents as long as they are using their Greathammer or Knight Sword.

Strength in Solidarity: Judgemasters excel at fighting alone and become a larger threat as more enemies surround them due to their large weapons. As long as a Judgemaster is more than 15’ from any allies, they gain a +1d4 bonus to damage for each enemy they can see. Killing an enemy removes their damage bonus to the Judgemaster’s fighting.

Law Card: As a Judgemaster, you will have access to tremendous power over battles you preside in. Judgemasters have access to a tool known as the Law Card; the Law Card can be used once per encounter. The Law Card allows the Judgemaster to control the tide of battle. At any time in the encounter, once per encounter as a Standard Action, the Judgemaster may ban up to 3 forms of damage. These forms of damage are:
Slashing
Piercing
Bludgeoning
Fire
Cold
Electricity
Sonic
Force
Acid
Positive
Negative
Non-Lethal
Untyped
Vile
Poison
Ability-Score Drain
Level Drain
Anytime anyone in the encounter uses a form of banned damage, they immediately take 6d6 damage from the Law Card. The second time they use the banned form of damage, the Law Card immediately deals 8d6, and so forth increasing by 2 dice each offense. Law Card deals double the damage to Chaotic beings who break them. Law Card only affects those within 200' of the Judgemaster. In addition, the power of Smite Chaos and Justice doubles anytime a Law Card is active.

The Judgemaster
http://static1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20061025014347/finalfantasy/images/6/60/Ffta-cid.jpg
"We are the judges, and I, the Great Judgemaster. They call me a pillar, and I wield absolute power. That power must not be abused." -Judgemaster Cid Randell

Becoming a Judgemaster
Judgemasters are lawful fighters who decide to undertake the rigorous training to becoming a judge of the land itself through battle. Separate from the judges of the courts, Judgemasters carry out the law in a physical (and usually violent) method. They become renowned throughout the land, and must be capable of social skills.

Entry Requirements:
Skills:Knowledge (Nobility) 5 ranks, Diplomacy 8 ranks, Intimidate 5 ranks
BAB: +3
Languages: Must speak 3 languages in addition to Common
Alignment: Lawful
Special: A Judgemaster must finish all five levels of Judgemaster or else are considered an Ex-Judgemaster and lose all class features.

Judgemaster’s Weapon: Judgemasters are notorious across the land for their large, overbearing weapons that they carry to enforce the law. A Judgemaster may choose Exotic Weapon Proficiency as a bonus feat, and select either the Knight Sword or the Greathammer as their weapon. Both weapons are masterwork and are granted to the Judgemaster upon entering the prestige class for a cost of 1,000 gp. They are considered lawful weapons. Greathammers and Knight Swords are terribly heavy, and require a Standard Action to wield. However, Judgemasters are accustomed to the weight, and may carry them on their back without becoming encumbered. Most Judgemasters use their mounts to carry their weapons for them. Drawing the weapon from a mounted sheath is a Move Action. All attacks made with a Judgemaster’s weapon are made at a -2 penalty but gain a +2 bonus to damage.

Judge Points: A Judgemaster gains statistics for those they bring to justice. If a Judgemaster can justify their kill for their alignment (more difficult for LG than LE) they gain a Judgment Point upon delivering the final blow. They only gain a Judgment Point if they deliver the final blow, and do not gain the Judge Point if they do not declare the righteousness of their killing. This can come in any form of speech delivered to the opponent before they are killed, but it must justify the kill (as satisfactory to the DM) in order to gain the Judgment Point. This can only be used on intelligent creatures (Intelligence score of 5+), but the creature does not have to understand their judgment for the Judgemaster to get the Judgment Points. Judgment Points carry over out of combat, and stack up to a maximum of 10. Each point grants a +1 insight bonus to Gather Information, Knowledge, Listen, Search, Sense Motive, and Spot when investigating someone the Judgemaster believes to be a criminal.

Authority: Judgemasters gain a +4 competency bonus to Bluff, Intimidate, and Diplomacy when they speak to civilians or citizens. This increases to +8 when speaking to friendly military units.

Mercy: Judgemasters may choose at any time to deal non-lethal damage with their weapon at no penalty. If their attack would reduce the opponent to 0 hit points or fewer, the Judgemaster may take a free 5’ step.

Disarmer: Judgemasters are experts at disarming criminals. They may choose either the Improved Disarm or the Improved Sunder feat as a bonus feat. The bonus granted increases to +6. In addition, the Judgemaster can control their might when making these attempts. A Judgemaster who disarms a weapon may deliver a mighty swing knocking the weapon 15’ in one direction, in a straight line. If it hits anyone, it deals that weapon’s normal damage. A Judgemaster who sunders a weapon does not destroy it, they simply break it. It may be repaired with a DC20 Craft (Blacksmithing) check. It is unusable as a weapon until it is repaired.

Justice: Judgemasters gain a +5 bonus to attack and damage rolls against Chaotic opponents as long as they are using their Greathammer or Knight Sword.

Strength in Solidarity: Judgemasters excel at fighting alone and become a larger threat as more enemies surround them due to their large weapons. As long as a Judgemaster is more than 15’ from any allies, they gain a +1d4 bonus to damage for each enemy they can see. Killing an enemy removes their damage bonus to the Judgemaster’s fighting.

Righteous Wrath: At 10th level, a Judgemaster may use the Judgment Points they have gathered to unleash an incredibly powerful attack. This expends all 10 stacks of Judgment Points, and leaves him fatigued for 1d4 turns. He may take one of two actions when he expends these points. He may either make a Full-Round Attack as a Standard Action (FRA, Swift, and Move in one turn) using his highest BAB for each iterative, or he may immediately grant up to three allies a free Move Action and one attack at their highest BAB against the Judgemaster’s target.

In all honesty, the weapons are crap. A standard action to use means no initiator strikes, full attacks, or feats that allow an attack with movement. Also the penalty in attack in return for damage is strictly worse than the standard Power Attack. At this point the Warlock is laughing at you.
Improved Disarm isn't all that great of tactic as you risk your own weapon being lost and a lot of enemies won't have anything in their hands. Sunder is better, but destroying loot isn't wise and again not optimal with this class.
Finally having only one thing to spend judgement points on as a capstone is just taunting the people that take this. You need to make it a PrC mechanic.

CryWolfCorrupt

2014-01-24, 12:20 PM

In all honesty, the weapons are crap. A standard action to use means no initiator strikes, full attacks, or feats that allow an attack with movement. Also the penalty in attack in return for damage is strictly worse than the standard Power Attack. At this point the Warlock is laughing at you.
Improved Disarm isn't all that great of tactic as you risk your own weapon being lost and a lot of enemies won't have anything in their hands. Sunder is better, but destroying loot isn't wise and again not optimal with this class.
Finally having only one thing to spend judgement points on as a capstone is just taunting the people that take this. You need to make it a PrC mechanic.

Will fix wording. Standard action to draw, not attack with. How can I better reflect that the weight of the weapon is a drawback?

I like the idea of disarming, and the Sundering is why I said that it's not destroyed, only broken and capable of being repaired. Maybe give Disarm the capability to cut off extremity natural weapons (hands, claws, tails)?

What do you have in mind for making the capstone better? I didn't want it to be godly for a 5 level class, but I would be willing to add more to it if it is underwhelming.

And how do you mean make it a mechanic? Add the spending of JP's into the JP description as something they can always do and change the capstone to something else?

anacalgion

2014-01-24, 12:38 PM

Will fix wording. Standard action to draw, not attack with. How can I better reflect that the weight of the weapon is a drawback?

Don't. Any kind of drawback will make them not worth using.

I like the idea of disarming, and the Sundering is why I said that it's not destroyed, only broken and capable of being repaired. Maybe give Disarm the capability to cut off extremity natural weapons (hands, claws, tails)?

That sounds interesting. Good idea, although the "hurling a sword by disarming" is a little odd.

What do you have in mind for making the capstone better? I didn't want it to be godly for a 5 level class, but I would be willing to add more to it if it is underwhelming.

And how do you mean make it a mechanic? Add the spending of JP's into the JP description as something they can always do and change the capstone to something else?

The points don't do anything until you get the capstone though. You should really add more than one way to attend them, and please please give them something to do with them before they finish the class.

Is there something you're pulling the fluff from for the class? Feels like there is and I might be able to help out more if I new the source material.

CryWolfCorrupt

2014-01-24, 01:04 PM

Don't. Any kind of drawback will make them not worth using.

Ok sounds good then.

That sounds interesting. Good idea, although the "hurling a sword by disarming" is a little odd.

Think of it kind of as swinging so hard that you send the weapon flying. Got it from a homebrew discipline for ToB. If I make it so they can cut off natural attacks I can replace the 'fling a disarmed weapon' since it was mainly a place holder to give disarming a bit more flair and fun uses.

The points don't do anything until you get the capstone though. You should really add more than one way to attend them, and please please give them something to do with them before they finish the class.

Well right now they just give bonuses to pursuing people whom the Judgemaster needs to track. And what do you mean "to attend them"? You mean to get more of them? They're based off the FFT/TA/TA2 game and I wanted to keep the system similar. Suggestions?

Is there something you're pulling the fluff from for the class? Feels like there is and I might be able to help out more if I new the source material.

Mostly from Judgemaster Cid Randell from Final Fantasy Tactics/Advance/Advance2. However, looking back, I think I might actually add a new capstone from the game: law cards. That would be thematic and cool, but might be a bit... over the top.

I have a new idea for a capstone, just don't know how to implement it just yet. Once I do, I think I will make the current capstone usable as a class ability as part of the Judgment Points feature. Any suggestions yall have to make the Judgment Points more flavorful while accumulating them, I am open to! Thanks for the input.

anacalgion

2014-01-24, 01:51 PM

I have a new idea for a capstone, just don't know how to implement it just yet. Once I do, I think I will make the current capstone usable as a class ability as part of the Judgment Points feature. Any suggestions yall have to make the Judgment Points more flavorful while accumulating them, I am open to! Thanks for the input.

*spend, not attend. Stupid phone blah. I'll give you my thoughts when I get to a computer.

Adam1949

2014-01-24, 02:27 PM

The main issue I have with the Judge Points is that, while they do provide a bonus to certain skills in certain situations, after you attain 10 of them they just sort of... sit there. It's entirely possible to gain all 10 points within a single level—a single battle, even, if you're busy wrecking demons or something—and then not do anything with them until the Judgemaster hits 5th level. If I could make a few suggestions, there should be a mechanic that allows them to use up a certain amount of Judge Points as a (whatever) action in order to do various things:

1 JP to Smite Chaos (as a Paladin's Smite Evil)
X JP in order to afflict an enemy with a -X penalty to all saving throws (or to Attack and Damage rolls, or possibly both if you want this to be potent)
2 JP to recover Xd10 HP, where X is the character's Judgemaster level
5 JP to force an opponent to make a Will saving throw (DC 15 + JM's class level + his Charisma modifier) or become paralyzed and helpless for 1d4 rounds.
... And so on.

CryWolfCorrupt

2014-01-24, 02:29 PM

The main issue I have with the Judge Points is that, while they do provide a bonus to certain skills in certain situations, after you attain 10 of them they just sort of... sit there. It's entirely possible to gain all 10 points within a single level—a single battle, even, if you're busy wrecking demons or something—and then not do anything with them until the Judgemaster hits 5th level. If I could make a few suggestions, there should be a mechanic that allows them to use up a certain amount of Judge Points as a (whatever) action in order to do various things:

1 JP to Smite Chaos (as a Paladin's Smite Evil)
X JP in order to afflict an enemy with a -X penalty to all saving throws (or to Attack and Damage rolls, or possibly both if you want this to be potent)
2 JP to recover Xd10 HP, where X is the character's Judgemaster level
5 JP to force an opponent to make a Will saving throw (DC 15 + JM's class level + his Charisma modifier) or become paralyzed and helpless for 1d4 rounds.
... And so on.

I fixed this and added some of my own flair (though I was editing it while you were posting so I did not see your suggestions til just now). I like the Smite Chaos and will be adding that anyway, as well as tweaking your other suggestions to give more options and flavor. I would love to know what you think of the changes I made.

CryWolfCorrupt

2014-01-27, 11:21 AM

Alright I added a tentative capstone Law Card based loosely off the law cards of FFT/TA/TA2. Bump, requesting input.

HammeredWharf

2014-01-27, 03:47 PM

The Judge Point abilities are all over the place. Denounce is useful, although the damage bonus is tiny compared to Power Attack. The others are a mixed bag, with Appeasement being very lackluster. 2d10 points of healing is really, really low. I suppose you could spend ten points at once, but that's a lots of effort for decent in-combat healing. I'd rather limit the spending to once per round and make some of the abilities more powerful.

Generally, though, the big problem I have with this class is that it's very DM-dependent. If you're fighting lots of low-CR outlaws, it's fine. If you're fighting boss enemies, it's much weaker. If you can't deliver the last blow, you're screwed. Generally, your party members won't wait for you to finish off a dangerous enemy that could kill them. Similarly, the Law Cards could be awesome or totally useless, depending on the encounter.

Your descriptions lack some crucial details, like the actions one would have to take to use these abilities. Is using Judgement Points a free action? What about the cards? What about that Craft check to repair broken weapons? Speaking of the Craft check, shouldn't it be a Heal check for natural weapons?

The bottom line is that I like the ideas and fluff behind some of these abilities, but I dislike how circumstantial many of the abilities are. I also dislike how the class is a mix of potentially encounter-ending (the cards) and pretty weak abilities.

CryWolfCorrupt

2014-01-28, 09:34 AM

Heard, thanks for the PEACH. I didn't know how to do the class which is one reason why I'm so grateful that so many people have PEACHed it so far. I think thematically it could be fun once I fix the kinks in it. Now, on to your points.

The Judge Point abilities are all over the place. Denounce is useful, although the damage bonus is tiny compared to Power Attack. The others are a mixed bag, with Appeasement being very lackluster. 2d10 points of healing is really, really low. I suppose you could spend ten points at once, but that's a lots of effort for decent in-combat healing. I'd rather limit the spending to once per round and make some of the abilities more powerful.What is a good point of heal for this level? Initially I was going to do 2d10/level of Judgemaster, capping at 10d10 healing, but thought that might be too much for a potentially level 10 character. I need to clarify, because yes you can only use the Judgment Points once per round. I was thinking that Denounce and other bonuses (Justice, etc) would stack with Power Attack which is why I made them fairly low. I will go through and touch them up and try to make them more potent.

Generally, though, the big problem I have with this class is that it's very DM-dependent. If you're fighting lots of low-CR outlaws, it's fine. If you're fighting boss enemies, it's much weaker. If you can't deliver the last blow, you're screwed. Generally, your party members won't wait for you to finish off a dangerous enemy that could kill them. Similarly, the Law Cards could be awesome or totally useless, depending on the encounter.So what if I gave them a few different ways to accumulate JPs? Successful crits, killing blows, maybe an Intimidate check exceeding a certain number gains Points? I agree that the class is less potent against a boss, but I only had my own games to go off, and most of them are lots of random encounters followed by a boss fight each level. With that being the case, the increased damage, crit, and to-hit that the Judgemaster has gives him potentially quite notable power over other characters around his level (as low as level 8 or 9 the difference would be more apparent) and he should be able to deliver multiple killing blows easily in one fight. And against the boss, having access to a Law Card that can ban fire damage against a dragon or bludgeoning against an Ogre wielding a massive club adds a nice amount of damage or safety net to the fight. I can tweak the JPs to make them more powerful but someone who knows how to use Law Cards without metagaming (obviously the fire breathing dragon breathes fire, but you wouldn't think to ban bludgeoning for the tail or wing buffets, probably) could turn just about any fight. And I tried to make the damage significant but not game breaking this way you can't ban someone's only form of weaponry and just win, but they WILL take some damage for it.

Your descriptions lack some crucial details, like the actions one would have to take to use these abilities. Is using Judgement Points a free action? What about the cards? What about that Craft check to repair broken weapons? Speaking of the Craft check, shouldn't it be a Heal check for natural weapons? I really do need to mention a lot of clarifications. Thanks for pointing it out, after this comment I reread it and realized there are a lot of gaps. And the Heal check is smart I just added the natural weapons part and forgot to add that in, thanks!

The bottom line is that I like the ideas and fluff behind some of these abilities, but I dislike how circumstantial many of the abilities are. I also dislike how the class is a mix of potentially encounter-ending (the cards) and pretty weak abilities. I will try to tweak this to balance it better. Thank you again for the PEACH and I hope after I have a chance to rework and touch it up you'll come back and see it.

HammeredWharf

2014-01-28, 10:30 AM

What is a good point of heal for this level? Initially I was going to do 2d10/level of Judgemaster, capping at 10d10 healing, but thought that might be too much for a potentially level 10 character.

Maybe 1d8 for each hit dice the character possesses? It's a bit unorthodox, but would be quite balanced IMO and useful at any level.

[/QUOTE]So what if I gave them a few different ways to accumulate JPs? Successful crits, killing blows, maybe an Intimidate check exceeding a certain number gains Points? [/QUOTE]

Maybe add some JPs for forcing the enemy to surrender via Diplomacy or Intimidate? Of course, it depends on how violent you want these guys to be.

CryWolfCorrupt

2014-01-28, 11:42 AM

Maybe 1d8 for each hit dice the character possesses? It's a bit unorthodox, but would be quite balanced IMO and useful at any level.

I like this. I haven't seen it before and it does make sense and I think that would be plenty.

Maybe add some JPs for forcing the enemy to surrender via Diplomacy or Intimidate? Of course, it depends on how violent you want these guys to be.

I actually really like this, a lot. It's a nice flavor that I hadn't even thought about. I will definitely be adding that in.